Adams Lutheran Church will be celebrating their 170th Anniversary on Sunday, May 17 at the Adams Lutheran Church, N7148 County Road A, Argyle, with a worship service at 10 a.m. and traditional Norwegian lunch at 11 a.m. with special music and a project table.
The Adams Lutheran congregation began in 1856 when Norwegians in the southern part of York Township and those in the Adams settlement combined their forces and sent Rev. Johan Storm Munch a letter of call, with 40 men from both areas signing a charter. The charter dated January 13, 1856 had mens names from Adams like Knut M Lee, Ole P. Aas, John Johnson Lindelien, Lars Hendrikson, Ole Hanson, Arne Knudson, Halvor Olson, Otter Tostensen Harestuen, and Martin A. Steensgaard, just to name a few.
It wasn’t until November 4, 1863 when the congregation decided that a church was going to be built and barely three weeks later, on Nov. 20, Anders Skindingsrud started to quarry stone from Knud M. Lee’s land about a quarter mile from the building site. All of the stone work was completed by October 21, 1964 and windows and doors were installed and floor was laid shortly after. The church was being used for services during that time. At an annual meeting in January 1866, the church was reported to have cost a total of $1,800 and all the bills were paid.
The church functioned for several years without an official name. Many referred to it as the Green County Church, others as the Norwegian Church. Articles of Organization of a Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of Adams were filed June 1, 1867 at the courthouse in Monroe. Adams Church was dedicated on August 24, 1869.
In 1880 the congregation began building a bell tower and a steeple and a total of $770 were collected from older members for the bell tower and $251 from young people for the bell. When the bell was ordered it has the verse stamped on it: Min metal tunge, Skal udsjunge, Herrens pris: Jeg vil samle, Unge gamle, Til Guds paradis; it translates into “My tongue of iron, Shall intone, Jehovah’s praise, May sound shall call, Young, old, yea all, To Jehovah’s Paradise.
In 1915 the church erected a multipurpose building. This building held a kitchen and dinning room but, like the name says, it had many uses. It served the church until May 7, 1945 when it sold at a public auction for $400 and was remodeled into a home in New Glarus.
In 1916, Adams Lutheran gifted a stain glass window to First Lutheran Church in Blanchardville (now New Hope Lutheran) when it was built. Adams Lutheran didn’t get their stain glass windows until 1937. In July 1937 it was decided that Christian Pederson Staum would buy one, E. Vinger, Lawrence and Olga would buy one, Oscar Vinger and Olaf Michaelson would buy one, Luther League would buy two and the Ladies Aid would buy one. That was a total of seven and a committee was then appointed to buy the rest from money solicited from the members. Two smaller windows in the church tower were contributed by the firm selling the windows because carpenters in the congregation agreed to build all the window frames.
In 1954 the entry to the church needed to be remodeled. They planned on an addition to be built under the belfry that would provide a hallway into the church basement and rest rooms on the ground floor with a vestibule, cloak room and a stairway to an upper room that could be used for a nursery or Sunday School classroom. A stipulation was that the material in the new addition should match with the masonry of the old structure. An old stone house built in 1859 from the same quarry that was used to build the Adams Church was purchased that the stone from that house was ever so carefully transported from a farm not far from the Yellowstone Church. Eventually, the new tower and the old belfry were joined and the final adornment was a stainless steel spire.
In January 1967 plans were drawn up for a new structure that was to be a bi-level structure. It was to be on the southeast corner of the present building and was to provide them with eight Sunday School rooms and extra space for serving in the dinning area on the lower floor. The original contracted price was $20,000, but that increased due to the difficulty of excavation. Construction began in September 1968 and a dedication was held in September 1969. Protective storms were installed in 1975 on all of the stained glass windows.
A day that many of the members will never forget is March 12, 1990. That is the day that the church burned down. The early morning blaze was caught by a passerby at 4 a.m. that day. The Argyle-Adams Fire Department was helped by Blanchardville and Monticello to fight the fire. The firemen spent over size hours that morning battling the blaze. The steeple came tumbling down around 8:15 a.m that morning. The entire inside of the church that was made of wood burned, including the walls. The only part that was able to be kept was the back storage area in the basement.
The rock foundation stood strong and about a year later the entire church was built back up again. The first wedding in the new building was held in September. A stained glass window was saved and now hangs in the sanctuary above the doors in a lit case.
The congregation would like to invite everyone to the celebration on Sunday, May 17 to look back at the life the Adams Lutheran Church has had and the people that continue to keep it alive.